Pledge to Teach the Truth
To respond to the right-wing legislation across the country, which attacks racial justice teaching, the Zinn Education Project organized a “Pledge to Teach the Truth” and invited educators to say […]
Racism
Tulsa and the Fight for Reparations
On May 31, 1921, white mobs terrorized the Black community of Greenwood in North Tulsa, Oklahoma. Known as Black Wall Street, the area teemed with prosperous businesses and cultural sites. […]
Dear Educators, It Is Time to Fight for Asian America
What is happening now is nothing new. The racism, the devaluing of life of Asian and Asian Americans, the dehumanizing of immigrant workers, the fetishism of — and violence toward — Asian women have been perpetuated throughout U.S. history.
The Teaching for Black Lives Starter Pack
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Shape-Shifting Segregation Policies
A teacher educator helps preservice teachers understand the history of how Mexican Americans have been racialized as Black and white at different times to keep them out of white schools.
Who’s to Blame?
A middle school teacher organizes a tribunal for her students on responsibility for the COVID-19 crisis in the United States. Among those on trial are Mother Nature, Gen Z/Millennials, the Healthcare Industry, Racism and White Supremacy, the Chinese Government, the U.S. Government, and the Capitalist System.
Teaching Voting Rights in the Time of Coronavirus
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the ratification of the 15th Amendment, which promised “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or […]
Reading Louise Erdrich to My Son
A teacher-librarian and parent writes about Louise Erdrich’s Birchbark series and how its stories of Indigenous life compare with the colonialism and racism of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books.
“But You Guys Wanted Us Here”
A film tackles the U.S. occupation of Japan.
Reviews 21.4
Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and RhymesWritten and Directed by Byron HurtMedia Education Foundation, 200660 mins, DVD The Hip-Hop Education Guidebook Volume 1: A Sourcebook of Inspiration and Practical ApplicationEdited by Marcella […]
Plotting Inequalities, Building Resistance
Media depictions of San Francisco show idyllic images of fog pouring under the Golden Gate Bridge or happy tourists riding cable cars, but rarely the mostly nonwhite neighborhoods of the […]
Schools and the New Jim Crow
The author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness applies her thought-provoking analysis to children, schools, and priorities for education activism.
Teaching the Prison Industrial Complex
“Harm comes from prior harm.” As Deandra says this, I am sitting in the back of my classroom, taking notes. My students are sitting in a circle in the middle […]
Science for the People
Ninth graders develop science literacy as they become neighborhood environmental experts and activists.
A Time to End the Silences
When texts don’t talk about racism
The Morning After The Morning After
Michelle Fine describes the issues faced by U.S. Muslim-American youth following not only 9/11 but the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Editorial: White Supremacy Is Not Color Blind
Supreme Court rulings affecting Louisville and Seattle could wipe out the last vestiges of the 1954 Brown decision.
We’re Not Blind. Just Follow the Dollar Sign
Chicago’s renaissance” could mean dark age for city’s public schools.”
Reconstructing Race
“Is Mr. Smith a White Guy?” I then changed the topic, volunteering to be a contemporary example. “OK, so the next question is: Is Mr. Smith a white man? Yes […]
Macaroni Social Justice
A 3rd-grade teacher uses thousands of pieces of macaroni to facilitate a lesson about fractions and to spur classroom conversations about wealth inequality.
Rethinking Our Classrooms Among Race and Education Books Censored at Illinois Prison
In late January, authorities at the Danville Correctional Center in east-central Illinois removed more than 200 titles from the prison’s library. One of the books that was confiscated was the Rethinking Schools book Rethinking Our Classrooms: Teaching for Equity and Justice, first published in 1994 and edited by Bill Bigelow, Linda Christensen, Stan Karp, Barbara Miner, and Bob Peterson.
40 Acres and a Mule
A high school teacher uses a role play so students can imagine life during Reconstruction, the possibilities of the post-Civil War era, and the difficult decisions that Black communities had to wrestle with.
Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action
In an era when a U.S. president calls Haiti and African nations shithole countries; a time when hate crimes are on the rise; a time when Black students are suspended at four times the rate of white students; and a time when we have lost 26,000 Black teachers since 2002, building a movement for racial justice in the schools is an urgent task. Black lives will matter at schools only when this movement becomes a mass uprising that unites the power of educator unions and families to transform public education.
Honor Their Names
Students’ names are the first thing teachers know about the young people who enter our classrooms; they can signal country of origin, gender, language. Students’ names provide the first moment when a teacher can demonstrate their warmth and humanity, their commitment to seeing and welcoming students’ languages and cultures into the classroom.
Why We Should Teach Reconstruction
Unfortunately, the transformative history of Reconstruction has been buried. First by a racist tale masquerading as history and now under a top-down narrative focused on white elites. It’s long overdue we unearth the groundswell of activity that brought down the slavers of the South and set a new standard for freedom we are still struggling to achieve today.